Have you read "Don't Shoot The Dog" by Karen Pryor? Check "Chapter 4 -Untraining: Using Reinforcement to Get Rid of Behavior You Don't Want." Pay particular attention to "Method 4: Extinction, letting the behavior go away by itself."

And here is a quote from Pryor's book. "Extinction is a term from the psychology labratories. It does not refer to the extinction of the animal but of a behavior, a behavior that dies by itself for lack of reinforcement, like a burnt-out candle. Behavior that produces no results -- not good results or bad results, just no results -- will probably extinguish."

Yes, that's exactly what they teach us in PSYCH 101 for human types too. ;-)

I've been telling myself for two years that if my girl didn't get any reinforcement (FOOD) for jumping up on the counter, that this behavior would extinguish itself. No luck in that area!

Well, in that event, you could try "Method 3: Negative Reinforcement."

"A negative reinforcement is any unpleasant event or stimulus, no matter how mild, that can be halted or avoided by changing one's behavior."

Sounds like mouse trap time to me. They have worked at our house. And that is in spite of the girls chewing up one of those nasty little critters once it hit the floor.